Mara Hanover is a shy, hardworking girl, born on the other side of the tracks. Her family is trailer trash, and she left home at a young age and worked hard to put her rough beginnings behind her. Mara heard all of her childhood that she was worthless and would never amount to much. Her self worth and self esteem are very low. Police detective Mitch Lawson is Mara’s neighbor and she has secretly been in love with him for years. Mitch, according to Mara, is way out of her league. Mara sees herself as a 2.5 and Mitch as a 10.5. When Mara gets a phone call from a store about her nine year old cousin, Billy and his six year old sister, Billie, she rushes out to pick up the kids she loves. She literally runs into Mitch on her way, and he talks her into letting him drive her there. The kids’ father, Mara’s drug-addicted, drug-dealing cousin, Bill is bad news.

I will freely admit I’ve had issues with Kristen Ashley’s heroines in the past. Too many of them are cardboard cut-out Lucille Ball type characters – wacky and obnoxious. Mara is not obnoxious. Mara is sweet and shy. She’s retreated so far inside her own head that Mitch struggles to find the real Mara. Mitch has been secretly into Mara for years, too, and she has all kinds of trouble accepting that.

The side characters in this book were great. Mara’s boss, her coworker, her best friend at home, and her neighbors all thought Mara was wonderful. When Mitch finds out she ranks people in her head and puts them all into zones, he’s baffled with that. He worked so hard the first half of the story to break her out of the protective and imaginary cocoon she’d wrapped herself in. It was sweet. Mitch forced her to live in the real world outside of Mara world.

Mara’s young nephew and niece were so cute and sweet. Mara ends up fighting to get custody. There’s action and excitement because Bill has entangled himself with some very bad people. Mara’s mother and aunt show up to create havoc.

Ellen Rodgers is a musical therapist, and she rents office space from attorney Flint Hopkins. Flint is a moody single father raising an autistic child. Free-spirited Ellen enjoys messing with Flint’s orderly existence. When he decides her musical therapy sessions are too loud for his peace of mind, he decides to evict her.

That was the basic premise of this story. The meat of the tale didn’t develop until late in the book. It was promoted as a romantic comedy, but I didn’t find it particularly humorous. I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, and I kept waiting for something (or anything) to happen. Instead of laughter, it actually brought me to tears when the two main characters split up at one point. Both Flint and Ellen had tragedy in their pasts. That caused a lot of the dithering, inactivity and indecision in their relationship and storyline.

I do have two criticisms:

1) As the mother of an autistic child, I find myself overly critical of fictional autistic characters. Something about Flint’s son, Harrison did not sit well with me. He gave in too easily. Autistic kids can be unreasonable and unrealistic. They don’t just cave and say “okay” when someone explains things. By the epilogue he seemed far too “normal” to me. Quirks don’t just disappear.

2) I’ve also been through two strokes (both of my parents). Ellen’s father’s recovery from his stroke was too rapid (he was speaking full sentences in the week it took for them to move/drive to Minnesota). His 100% recovery was too miraculously complete. It just wasn’t plausible for me.

Isabel Derby is an art teacher. One of her students is a child prodigy. Natalie Eden is ten and in the eighth grade. She’s sweet, and she’s special. Her father, Brent, is broody, handsome and protective. When Izzy is stalked by a creepy guy she dated only one time, Brent comes to her rescue. He tells the persistent jerk that Izzy is his fiancé.

There was a lot going on in this story.

1. Izzy’s family was obnoxious. They were all fussed and constantly harping on the fact that Izzy wasn’t married. That was ridiculous. She was 23, not 43.

2. Teachers and students’ families weren’t supposed to fraternize. Izzy was insistent that she and Brent couldn’t see each other because her job was everything.

3. Brent used to be part of an outlaw motorcycle gang and he was ex-Army. This was hinted at off and on, but it didn’t come into play until the end.

4. Brent’s younger brother, Davey had died a number of years earlier. This is a sore point for the hero, and he won’t discuss it.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It rambled around a bit with several subplots, but it pulled itself together at the end. I liked the tough guy hero, especially when he fell for Izzy and let her in. They truly were a team by the end with Izzy as kickass and tough as she needed to be when they faced down real danger.

Harmony Jones is an MC “club girl”. Most MC books don’t feature the club whores or camp followers. This book is written from the angle of the hooker with a heart of gold. Everyone loves “Harmz”. I almost passed on this one because I have a hard time with stories that feature multiple sex partners. It’s gross. That part of her life is only the first bit of the book, though. Even though there are only a few separate scenes of her with other guys, it was a little hard for me to forget that she’d been intimate with all the guys in the club. They all knew all there was to know about her. Yuck.

The story improved and picked up for the better when the hero, the President of a different chapter of the same club, arrived. Kit Cranshaw claimed her as his almost immediately upon seeing her, and he put a stop to her sleeping with anyone besides him. He didn’t want her for just sex. He wanted all of her. He wanted to get to know her and build a future with her. He wasn’t sure why at first, but he saw something special in her. She got angry when he doesn’t immediately sleep with her. I liked the relationship between the two of them. I liked him a lot.

The supporting cast of characters was an interesting mix, both Kit’s club and her original one. The tension in the story comes from the bad guys, and she is roughed-up and kidnapped a couple of times. She feels Kit lets her down and doesn’t protect her more than once. Towards the end of the story when she blindly goes off with a character who has physically mistreated her more than once, I almost threw my kindle across the room. She was supposed to be smart. No one would have gotten into a car alone with someone who hated her, someone she had never trusted, someone who had proven over and over again that he was not trustworthy. That was ridiculous.

I will continue on with the series to get the resolution of Chelsea’s story, the teaser/cliffhanger from the end of the first book.

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Donna Florack

About Me

I have been married to the love of my life for 29 years. I am a trucker’s wife, Mom to two adult sons, bass player, blogger, writer, music lover, avid reader, wildlife lover, and an amateur photographer. I can be reached at donna@heronthereeverywhere.us.

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